Jumping Into Spring

With the new season in full swing, I thought I would give a little update on how life has been going.

Health

Apparently I have not been to enough temples to keep the doctor away. Over the past 3 months, I have visited the doctor's office on 3 separate occasions (fret not, I am fine). Luckily, I have had a wonderful experience each time I visited the offices. The only real issue I ran into was that most offices closed at 5pm, and my workday ends at 4:30, which did not give enough time to catch public transportation and reach the office before it closed. The last 2 visits were to a clinic a few blocks over from my travel school. The nurses were incredibly kind, and the doctor spoke a moderate amount of English (a requirement of all doctors in the country). I still used my translator app, however, to ensure all my symptoms were being properly logged. The third visit I had (second at this particular office) the nurses remembered me and were sad I was sick again (love that I'm already considered a regular). The doctor also remembered me and gave me a free bag in celebration of their clinic being open. I received a butt injection of antibiotics (the second one I had there), which means two separate nurses have seen my incredibly pale rump. Love my life!!

Anyways, each visit rang up at a grand total of $5; yes, you read that correctly. The meds from the pharmacy were never any more than $10, and I could walk into literally any pharmacy with my prescription to have it filled. All the healthcare workers are incredibly kind hearted and quick workers, and I am immensely grateful they took such pity on a little foreign woman who seemingly cannot stop getting sick.

Just me and my meds

School

I have recently started teaching an after school English Reading Program for a group of 12 4th, 5th, and 6th graders at my main school. A huge learning gap, mind you. While I do not teach the 6th graders normally at my main school, they are all incredibly sweet individuals who often help a few of the younger students throughout the class. For the class, I introduce the book we read, review some vocab, read the book, complete a short quiz, and then have them participate in an activity of some sort. The first week we read "David Goes to School" by David Shannon. Quick aside, David Shannon books are spectacular, and I have enjoyed reading them since I was in elementary school myself. During the reading, I would ask some simple comprehension or prediction questions. I had about 2 students who would consistently answer, but it's better than no students answering. Once the book was finished, I had them work in small groups. Each group was given a rule David broke at school, and they would think of at least one way he could change his behavior. For example, David yelled in the hallways (the broken rule), so he could talk quietly in the hallways (changed behavior). The kids came up with some really unique ways in which David could improve his behavior.

This past week, we read "The Dinosaur Who Lost His Voice" by Russell Punter. The gist of the book is that a dinosaur, Sid, enjoys scaring his friends by loudly roaring at them. He eventually loses his roar because of this, and after some rest time, he returns to find his friends have been taken by a big dinosaur. He saves them with his scary roar, and they are all happily friends again. Some of my students had thoughts about Sid gaining his roar back after being such a naughty friend in the first place. After reading, I gave each student a paper where they designed a poster to keep big dinosaurs away. They had to draw a picture, and then describe their dinosaur in a few words. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the posters created by my students. Keep in mind, of my 12 students 9 of them are boys, which will make sense when you analyze their drawings.

Work Life

Last week, I had my first official Korean company dinner. For those of you not aware of this custom, everyone from the office gathers at a restaurant to eat, drink, and celebrate working together. Before this dinner, however, we had a climbing competition. Now if you are thinking climbing competition as in ROCK climbing competition, you would be wrong (don't worry, you are not alone). To Koreans, climbing competitions are just long hikes up a mountain for health purposes. The day of our hike/ dinner, we had absolutely atrocious air quality, so we all wore masks while walking. Technically, I was the youngest person on the walk (one other teacher is close to my age), and all the others were at least 20 years older than me, yet I was much more out of shape compared to them. I was walking with the faster group of teachers, and I did break a bit of a sweat by the end. I really enjoyed myself even if the sky was incredibly hazy due to yellow dust .

Igidae Mountain

Dinner was a real showstopper. We ate at a restaurant at Gwangalli beach where I had my first experience with Korean sushi. Korean sushi is a mixture of sashimi and various side dishes, such as boiled octopus and fried tempura. I was sat at a table with 2 other teachers (one of which being one of my co-teachers), and my 2 other co-teachers were sat close by. The dinner started with a toast from the principal, and then we began to dig in. Course 1 was caramelized sweet potatoes, grilled shrimp, cucumber and shrimp salad, and seaweed soup. Everything was delicious. Course 2 quickly followed with boiled octopus, sannakji (live octopus cut into pieces so it still moves), and the first round of sashimi. I tried the live octopus, but the flavor was not my favorite. The sauce was heavily sesame oil based, and that is not my favorite flavor profile. 10/10 would recommend though! Course 3 was another 2 rounds of sashimi (I was feeling fully by this point, but I kept eating). The sashimi was nice, although the fish was not particularly flavorful since the point is to dip it into various sauces. Course 4 was tempura and fried fish. By this time, my belly was close to bursting, and the majority of the teachers had downed quite a bit of alcohol. I chose not to partake in drinking because one, it was a school night (Wednesday), and two, it was beer and soju (not my go to drinks). Everyone was having a great time eating, drinking, and talking. Finally, course 5 was brought out. It was a fish stew of some sort, and my goodness was it just about the best thing I have ever had. One of the teachers sitting at my table dished up my bowl with the entire fish head inside. I thought it was great (he was very apologetic since he thought I would be weirded out by it), and I even ate a little of the meat from the cheeks. I did not touch the eyeballs, though.

Left to right: sannakji, fried fish, fish head soup

Personal Life

I have loved experiencing cherry blossom season over the past month. While the blossoms have sadly completely bloomed, all the trees and plants are so green and vibrant. Walking to work from the bus stops is quite enjoyable thanks to all the beautiful flowers lining the sidewalks. The Oncheoncheon stream also had some beautiful blooms that Tom and I took advantage of the other week. We had a random Wednesday off work, so we had ourselves a nice 6 mile walk along the water.

Mixture of Cherry Blossom trees near my school and Oncheoncheon Stream flowers

Also, I have officially joined a gym. Never did I think those words would actually come out of my mouth, yet here we are. I am only attending a few times a week, but I will admit it is nice to be physically active. Maybe it will help me from getting sick again!

It is crazy to think April is almost over! I remember this time last year preparing for college graduation and moving back to Illinois while also not quite knowing if I was going to be offered a job in Korea. Times certainly have changed (for the better), and I am looking forward to what this summer season will bring.